Op-Ed: Fox Sports headline gaffe implies Iranian wrestler is Iraqi

HOUSTON – Fox-affiliated news networks aren't known for relentless devotion to fact-checking or research. But a gaffe on the Fox Sports website earlier today makes you question whether Fox's staff has the barest inkling of Middle Eastern geography.

Reporting on Iranian athlete Hamid Soryan's gold-medal win in Greco-Roman wrestling yesterday at the Olympics in London, the site's Olympic-wrestling home page displayed a banner photo of a bloodied Soryan kissing his medal, accompanied by the giant headline: “IT'S IN THE BAGHDAD!”

Clever and attention-grabbing enough, you might say. Except for one tiny problem: Baghdad is in Iraq, not Iran.

Somebody must have alerted the network to the mistake, because as of this writing, the heading has since changed to: “GRECO-ROMAN RULER”.

But the correction didn't come soon enough to escape the notice of Max Read, editor at New York-based media-news website Gawker, which ran a blurb about the mix-up just after noon (EST) under the heading, “Fox Sports Can’t Tell the Difference between Iraq and Iran.”

Even before the fix, Gawker readers began pitching their own more geographically accurate headlines. A site member identified as “OGHowdini” offered “THINK IRAN CAN'T WIN? P-SHAH!” while Read himself contributed “TEHRAN WITH THE WIN” and “PERSIAN SMUG” (the latter being “accompanied [by the] photo of Soryan's s--t-eating grin”).

Another poster suggested, “AYATOLLAH'D YOU SO”.

This isn't Fox's first geographical error on the Interwebs. In July 2009, a graphic of a Middle East map on the main Fox News site labelled Iraq as Egypt.

It's another reason to worry about Fox News pundits pushing for an invasion of Iran. What if it leads to a full-scale military assault on Denmark?

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com